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Smithsonian

Things are getting even uglier in the dispute between CBS Corp. and Time Warner Cable (TWC), which has resulted in 13 CBS Owned & Operated TV stations in the eight markets covered by TWC, cable networks Showtime, The Movie Channel (TMC), Flix and Smithsonian, which are wholly or partly owned by CBS, to go dark. A CBS spokesperson has confirmed reports that CBS has blocked TWC subscribers from viewing CBS.com, which would enable those affected by the dispute with a different avenue to view their favorite CBS programs.

After failing to reach a new deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC) over retransmission fees, 13 CBS Owned & Operated TV stations in the eight markets covered by TWC, cable networks Showtime, The Movie Channel (TMC), Flix and Smithsonian, which are wholly or partly owned by CBS, are now dark. The networks and stations were dropped by the second largest cable provider in America effective 5:00 PM Eastern Time, which was the most recent deadline agreed to by both parties who have been embroiled in a retransmission dispute since failing to sign a new contract in late June as the old one was set to expire.

CBS Corporation and Time Warner Cable (TWC) have been embroiled in a carriage dispute since the expiration of their contract on June 30, and as a result the two sides gave Wednesday, July 24 as their deadline to come to an agreement before millions of CBS viewers were left in the dark. Thankfully, the two companies continued discussions and were able to extend their deadline several times since. Last night was the latest scheduled deadline, but both parties failed to come to an agreement yet again and have now set Friday, August 2 at 5:00 PM ET as the next deadline. The extension occurred nearly a half hour after TWC blackened CBS programming in various markets.